What Would Judy Do?: Seven Fifty-Two

By Judy A. Smith | Apr 25th, 2013

In this episode we learn the reasons that Olivia’s crew is devoted to her and in turn why she is devoted to them. They are all emotionally damaged human beings, from abuse, rejection, deaths, and manipulation. Their relationship with each other helps fill the hole they feel from the damage they have endured. They have bonded through need and the ability to at least lessen the pain they feel.

They are a team and in the work I do I can testify to that in a crisis you need a team to get through it. I am a “fixer” but I don’t accomplish what I do alone. I work with various combinations of lawyers, investigators, and security specialists as well as my staff and partners with whatever the client may need to help salvage or protect them.

With high profile clients in particular, the stress they endure is tremendous. As I have said many times before the larger stage makes for higher stakes. It’s like having regular problems on steroids. Because the consequences can be so severe, there is more often than not the temptation to lie, deceive and when exposed to cover up. As you can see from the series that to do so weaves an entangled mess that often causes collateral damage to family members, friends or associates. Huck tries to deceive his superiors only to bring physical harm to himself and emotional trauma to his wife and most likely his child. To protect them he has to ignore them despite the pain it causes himself and his family.

By trying to dodge a bullet we often only succeed in digging a deeper hole to fall in. Usually, at the point someone comes to me for help they are desperate. They realize the hole is about to swallow them up. To deal with the entanglement they need a team. I put the team together. We develop a plan that is best suited to serve our client’s needs and then do our best to unravel the mess and protect the client.

The moral of this week’s episode and probably the whole series could be: careful what you choose and how you go about it. But to me the greater moral is that we all need support to deal with life and often we find it in much unexpected places.

Judy A. Smith is the founder and President of Smith and Company, a leading strategic and crisis communications firm with offices in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles as well as a Co-Executive Producer of ABC's Scandal. You can follow her on Twitter (@JudySmith_) or "Like" her on Facebook, and you can get more information about managing personal and professional crisis situations by visiting her site, judysmith.com.